The Game of the Gods
by seyfrieds
Summary: In post-apocalyptic America, Hera weaves a terrible, brutal Game that can tear the already unified Camp Jupiter and Cam Half-Blood apart. THG and PJO are both not mine.
1. Chapter 1

**JEM**

"I'll race you to the pine tree, Jem!"

I laugh heartily, and fix into a running position. "You'd really do that, Will? I don't think any competition would be necessary for me to beat you." My real name is Jamie Elizabeth Henderson, and I hate my name, so call me Jem. One thing you must know about me is that I am a hell of a fast runner, and I'm not bragging. Almost everyone agrees with me. Of course, my half-siblings don't.

Half-siblings? Yeah, you heard it right. I have no full-blood siblings, and so do almost all of us 'round here. If you're asking why, brace yourself, because I'm about to sound crazy.

One of each of our parents is a god or goddess.

I know you're thinking, huh? This girl is insane. I told you, I would sound crazy. But it's true. It has been for, I guess, more than ten centuries, and not many people know. I bet you haven't even known of modern demigods. Yeah, I know people mostly know oldies like Perseus and Jason and whatever, but heard of Percy Jackson? That kid is my idol. I mean, fighting all of the Titans and winning the battle? Come on! Who wouldn't idolize him? Screw Achilles and Theseus, this guy is better than all of them.

Fine. I may have had a little crush on Percy Jackson when I first saw his face in the books written in Ancient Greek about the great demigods that changed the course of history. Then that crush kind of went away after I read that he died in the war. Poor Percy Jackson.

What is the war? I would have liked to answer that question myself. What they tell us is that, surely, the gods had something to do with it. Titan War III, as most of the campers call it.

"Yo, Jem! Are we doing this or not?" Will asks cockily. Cheeky Will. Just like most of the Apollo kids, Will Paxton is an awfully cocky boy, and don't let him tell you otherwise. Blond hair, and bright green eyes, he's the sixteen-year-old head counselor of his cabin, consisting of only children of Apollo. They're all equally boastful of their talents, just because they can write poetry and compose music and play ball games quite well. Bah. As much as I would like to throw a knife in each of their heads, Will's still my best friend. We've been through so much and I can't stand killing him.

And what about me? Huh. No one's ever asked me to paint a picture of myself. Imagine this: girl of sixteen, dark brown hair, chocolate brown eyes, lightly tanned skin. My dad? Hermes. God of thieves, messengers, travelers, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Don't expect me to name everything my dad is patron of, because I don't think you'd also want to name all your dad's past girlfriends in front of your mother, now would you?

I didn't think so.

Will grins at me. "You ready?"

I nod. "Are you?"

"Three…"

"Two…"

"One," we say together.

I push my feet forward and dash as fast as I possibly can. Usually, during mini-races like this, Will likes to cheat his way into winning. He likes to shoot beams of light in my face as I run, causing me to stop and give him an easy win. It won't work this time, because I know what he does, and I'm not going to cheat. I'm going to run fair and square.

As I spot Will shooting a beam from the corner of my eye, I stop abruptly, his beam narrowly missing me. As he's running, he curses in Ancient Greek and I look at where he's going as I start to run again.

"Tree! Tree!" I yelp, hoping he gets my message.

Instead, he scoffs, and keeps running, not looking at what's in front of him. "I know Thalia's tree, Jem. We've been there back and fo—"

Yup. Knew it. He's too proud to see the tree right in front of him, and his face collides with the rough bark. I take a moment to laugh at his misfortune, because I know he's going to try to forget this all happened. "Oh my gods, Will, you are a sad human being!" I exclaim.

As he gets up, I start to remember: we're racing here. I run, faster than I possibly have tried in years, and touch the tall, looming pine tree that once had a girl inside it. It's hard to believe that all of this actually happened more than three centuries ago, and all I'm thinking is, if the gods were that screwed up before, what more now?

I see Will dashing up the hill and rubbing his head. It's got a big red bump and it's sort of bulky. "Ugh, how can I ever be attractive again?" he moans.

"It'll shrink, Paxton, relax," I say, still laughing. I glance at the Golden Fleece that released Thalia from her eco-friendly prison. It fully healed her and brought her out of the tree. What astonishing things it can do! But now, I hear she's still alive, leading Lady Artemis' handmaids, the Hunters. They live forever, unless they fall in love or die in battle. Well, I could never be a Hunter—I can't stand staying away from guys-that would be too much.

Will grins and turns his back as I hear the camp horn in the distance. "Come along, Henderson, the wilderness is calling us!" he exclaims, pointing to the sky.

In response, I hear thunder rumbling and chuckle, not surprised that Zeus might be offended when called "the wilderness".


	2. Chapter 2

**AGRON**

I drop to the ground as a spear zips towards my face.

"Sorry, Agron, didn't see you there!" Dean yells, dashing towards the spear and pulling it out of the wall. My name is Sophie, but the reason everyone around Camp calls me Agron is that there are two Sophies, and they're both daughters of Venus. That way, it's less confusing.

I shake my head and smile. "No worries, Dean, at least I'm not dead!" I call, as he runs off to meet his half-brother, Andy. I give a little fake laugh and walk towards the town, where most of the Roman descendants live. When I say Roman, I don't mean they're Italian. They're descendants of demigods. Now, I don't think I need to tell you about them, I'm pretty sure you've seen really, really old movies like Clash of the Titans and Immortals; I have, but honestly, I just think they're a pile of crap. They always feature Greek mythology, never Roman. Why? What's wrong with ours? Fine, call me biased, but the gods that I know are much, much fiercer than silly Greek gods. They controlled an empire, not a country!

"Agron, are you okay?" I hear someone ask.

I turn my head around, surprised to see it's Aaron. Aaron Saverin. The angst-filled son of Pluto with a big reputation in camp. No one really knows why he's angry most of the time, but what Alice, his half-sister, tells me is that he had a really rough childhood and camp is the only place he can actually let his anger out, with training and all. In truth, all of us had a rough childhood—well, demigods mostly—but rumor has it he had it worse than most, like going through hell and back.

I smile at him, trying to seem like it's nothing. "Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about it."

He nods his head and sighs with relief. "If you say so. It's not every day you have spears flying towards you," he chuckles. Sometimes, just sometimes, his humor is too dark and sadistic for many of us. I'm guessing it comes with being the son of Pluto, but his sister isn't like that. Scratch that idea.

I try to laugh along with him. "Yeah, I agree. War games are coming up later, are you excited?" I ask, plucking a blond strand of hair from my purple camp T-shirt. Being a daughter of Venus sometimes makes you overly OCD, especially in my case, which is why my dad had no problem living with just me and my older sister, Lindy.

He looks at the ground and his black sneakers make scuff marks on the brown earth. "I don't know," he manages. "I think the war games will change. I don't know, it's just something I feel. I bet Klaus feels the same way in his little augury, splitting little stuffed animals in half and pulling their guts out."

I make a face. "Ugh, guts of fluffy white stuffing everywhere. Yuck." I think about what he just said. "War games? Change? Aaron, you're insane. The games haven't changed ever since they began. What makes you think they'll change this year?"

He shrugs carelessly. "Like I said, it's only a feeling. But it's a very strong one, Agron, so don't come whining to me after all of this happens and I say I told you so."

I nod my head, my mouth twitching at a smirk. "You're on, Saverin."

He waves to me and walks to the Second Cohort, while I make my way to New Rome. What I really don't get is how he got to the Second Cohort and off probatio so quickly. Recommendation letters are rare for demigods and I'm still stuck in the Fourth Cohort—how degrading is that? Well, it's not as terrible as the Fifth, but still! I'm close to being a loser. I've got one year of being in the Fulminata, so I'm off probatio as well.

Dan, a Legacy of Vulcan, runs beside me, a narrowly long black box as long as my leg. "Hey, Agron, I got this fixed for you already, hope you like it," he says, smiling.

I stop, and lift off the cover, placing it underneath the box. I gasp as I hope I'm not dreaming that this is actually happening.

My gladius sparkles as sunlight hits it, the newly polished gold handle forcing me to look away as I grin with happiness. And, my favorite part: engraved near the handle is the phrase, beauty does not make you weak, translated to Latin. I smile and give Dan a hug; so far, he's done so much for me. "Thank you, Dan. I can't thank you enough."

He hugs me back, and I can smell that strange scent of fire and lemons, the familiar smell I know and grew up with back in Ohio. He strokes my hair, and at some times, I can feel his rough, callused hands touch my head. Dan Korman is probably one of the very few Legacies that inherited an ability from his demigod parent, in this kid's case, he's a whiz with machinery. Can fix almost anything I've seen, and finish it in less than a week if it's nothing too difficult. "How about a kiss, Agron?" he asks, hopeful.

I laugh. This thing has been going on for years, and it's hilarious. It all started back in our hometown: Wayne County, Ohio. Me, Dan, and our old friends Kyle and Helen were playing near the lake. Helen was pushed into the lake by Dan, and she couldn't swim, so Kyle had to jump in and save her. Dan and I both knew that Kyle had fallen in love with Helen that summer and Helen felt the same. So, playfully, after being all Supermanly and sweeping the redhead off her feet, he asked, "How about a kiss, Helen Morgan?"

She replied, "If you'd like, Kyle Wasson." And they made out for probably three minutes. Dan and I found it awkward, so we hopped onto our bikes and left. From that moment on, whenever we'd ask favors from each other, one would go, "How about a kiss?" and most likely, the answer would be no. We were fourteen when everything happened, two years of being in Camp Jupiter. Not a single kiss passed between us.

"No, thanks, Daniel," I say, laughing and letting go.

He pouted, as always. "Are you sure?"

Just before I could reply, Jane, the daughter of Vulcan, runs towards me and touches my shoulder. "Agron, come quick! Chris has something to report to the whole camp."


	3. Chapter 3

**ALICE**

"Alright, everybody shut up! Or I'll ask Lupa to feed you all to the monsters outside of the camp!" I yell, pointing to the entrance to the camp. Gods, being praetor had its perks and downfalls. This instance being the latter, as most of the campers have hearing issues. "Centurions! What in the world are you doing? You're supposed to be helping me!"

I roll my eyes and adjust my purple robe, forcing myself not to curse in Latin. I see senators glaring at the members of their Cohorts and look at everything. The First Cohort centurions train their legionnaires to be still, and make no unnecessary movements. Good. The second, still having legionnaires tapping their fingers or toes. Fine job. Three, oh gods. Just because Gemma is ill doesn't mean Evan can't do the job by himself. Four… same as always. Fidgety, perfectly defining ADHD. I thank the gods I don't have it.

I can't even stand to look at the Fifth Cohort. Most of them are still on probatio, what the other Cohorts call the shame of the camp. To me, they just need a push. Percy Jackson brought them to the top in his time. I know, it's always been The Percy Jackson Show. But I think he just got lucky. Alright, maybe he's a good fighter. But how would I know? I'm not immortal, don't even know how I can become one! Well, maybe I have heard of the Greek Hunters, but Greek is different than Roman. I also don't think I'm the type of person who'll easily give up love. I may be a praetor, but I've got a heart.

I stare at my tattoo. Six stripes for six years of service. They call my story a miracle and a legend. I'm a daughter of Pluto, originally born in the Hamptons in New York. Don't even think about me being all high-class and whatnot. I ran away when I was nine years old with my twin brother, Robert. We knew about the camp, knew we were demigods, and hated it when our mother refused to tell us anything. So we ran. All the way to California, and to be honest, it was horrible. We were so close to Mount Diablo, until Lupa deemed Robert not ready, and I was. He's stubborn, see, and he refused to keep training in the Wolf House. So they took him to a private room and… I heard screams.

Screams that could only be Robert's.

I couldn't stop crying. The week after, it would be our birthday, and we never celebrated it alone. Lupa let me stay for two more days, until I found my way to Camp Jupiter, recognition letter in hand. Arielle and Lucas, the praetors before me, weren't cold. They were kind, and sorted me into the First Cohort. Being in that certain Cohort meant you had an amazing recognition letter. My tenth birthday marked the first birthday of many that I couldn't share with Robert. Because he was dead. And I couldn't ask Thanatos to bring him back, even if I tried. A few months later, my tablet was removed, and I received my first stripe, symbolizing my first year in the Fulminata.

When Arielle and Lucas both finished their terms, they elected me and this boy, Oliver, to be praetors. I'll admit Oliver and I were close, but all relationships were strictly for running the camp only. We did nothing but sit on our thrones and talk. I knew that he liked me, but I couldn't stand the thought of breaking his heart.

Christopher, the augur, taps my shoulder. "Alice? Are you spacing out again?"

I shake my head, hearing silence. "I guess I was." I take a deep breath and yell out, "Our augur, Christopher, has received a very important message from the gods. Listen up!" My voice echoed around the temple of Jupiter Optimus Maximus.

Christopher nods and turns to the statue of Jupiter, its gleaming, golden eyes staring cruelly at the demigods before him. "O Jupiter, tell us what we need to see! Project in your clouds the vision! The great and terrible beauty I cannot explain in my own words! What have the gods planned?"

* * *

><p><strong>MAX<strong>

The sky turns into a gloomy gray as I race towards the forest. Everyone rushes in packs, and I can make out someone muttering, "This will be bad."

Everest Carpenter, the girl with white-blond hair, runs next to me and gives me a friendly smile. "Hi, Max," she says, speeding up. "If you don't want to be late, you better catch up." She gives me a smirk and quickly speeds way ahead of me.

I sigh, cursing myself for being a slowpoke. As I spot Chiron, I sit next to Jem Henderson and her hunky friend, Will Paxton, my half-brother. "Hey, Maxxie," Jem says, smiling at me. Will nods and turns to Chiron. I don't know why, but I've always preferred Jem than my own brother. I think it's the fact that she's so warm and sunny all the time, but he's not.

"Heroes!" Chiron yells, raising his bow. "I have received news from the gods themselves that they have a message for each and every one of you. Now, if you'll look to the sky, I believe Zeus is broadcasting it to our friends in the West as well," he says, pointing his bow to the sky. All I can see are stormy clouds and grey skies.

And then the sky turns into a television screen.

The image of a lady with dark hair and cold eyes, wearing a golden dress and crown flickers in the sky. Some kids scream in panic, others stay calm, but most are looking up in horror. Jem quickly clasps my arm, and I can hear her slow breathing. Will's face is stuck in horror, his eyes getting bigger and bigger.

"Hello, young demigods," the woman booms. She has a regal expression about her. Wait, wait. This can't be, it just can't. "My name is Hera, Queen of the Gods, and wife of Zeus. To the Roman demigods, I am Juno. The ability to distinguish my two forms is a sign of respect, but we shall not talk about that right now. You campers love your little war games and capture the flag, am I right?"

A scary smile creeps up her lips and I can feel goose bumps crawling at my skin. This didn't sound good.

"Well, your games are both going to change… forever."


End file.
